Foster parents in Carinthia call for better school support

About 260 children in Carinthia are cared for by foster parents, and school can bring particular challenges, ORF Kärnten reported. More than 100 foster parents gathered in Velden to share experiences and learn about support services.

The state is seeking more people to become foster parents. They receive an expense allowance, said Peter Reichmann (SPÖ), the state councillor for families. He also stressed the need to protect children through regular conversations, including age-appropriate discussions with children without their foster parents present. Four such conversations take place each year, three of them compulsory with the foster child.

School was the main focus of the gathering. Support available to foster children and their families includes school psychology, school social work, diversity management, specialist teachers and so-called timeout groups, Reichmann said.

Andrea Primoschitz, a teacher and family counsellor who has been a foster mother for nine years, said every child brings their own history to school. Foster children may feel less secure or behave differently, and teachers can find it difficult to interpret this because their training does not cover the subject. She said teachers need more support and training, and that children may have days when they struggle to cope.

Foster children live with their foster parents while remaining in the care of the youth welfare office. Many also continue to have contact with their birth families, creating a family situation that Primoschitz said schools should take into account.